Maynard, MA, USA: Beacon-Villager newspaper column on local history, observations on nature and recreational activities, plus an occasional health-related article. Columns from 2009-11 collected into book "MAYNARD: History and Life Outdoors." Columns from 2012-14 collected into book "Hidden History of Maynard." - David A. Mark

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Thursday, August 18, 2016

Maynard's High Schools 1871-2016

The school that opened for the 2013-14 school year replaced
the building next door that had served as Maynard's High School for 49 years.
The high school before that one had served for 48 years. The next to last
school had a troubled gestation. In 1961 the town vote was against building a
new high school. This was short-sighted, as the existing school had an official
maximum capacity of 350 students (already exceeded), no library and a too-small
gym. One year later the vote went the other way, in favor of spending up to
$1.7 million dollars to go forward.

The project was way overdue. Projections
based on the Baby Boom were that the high school population would swell to 600
in ten years. And in truth, it hit 644 in 1971. Junior high school students
were already on split sessions due to overcrowding and the elementary schools
were averaging 30 to 35 students per classroom. The new school relieved
overcrowding across the entire school system.

MAYNARD HIGH SCHOOL sign destroyed along with the building in 2013.

The Class of 1965
was the first class to graduate from the school building that met its demise in
2013. Joseph Mullin was the class president of 124 graduating students. The
class motto was "Non est vivere est valere vita," which translates as
"Not merely to exist, but to amount to something in life."

As for the newest
iteration of MaynardHigh School - the sixth
to serve that function since the town was incorporated in 1871 - construction broke
ground in 2011. Classes began with the 2013-14 school year even though the
building and landscape were still works in progress.

Enrollment at MaynardHigh School ebbed from that 1970s peak
of more than six hundred to numbers in the low three hundreds for the last ten
years, resulting in graduating classes of about 70 students. There has been a
recent uptick in enrollment, but still small compared to our neighbors.
Acton-Boxborough graduates 450-500 each year. Nashoba (serving Stow,
Bolton and Lancaster)
graduates about half that number. To the south, Lincoln-Sudbury sees off about
400 each year, while eastward, Concord-Carlisle says good-by to approximately
325 seniors. What all ten towns share in common is that the great majority of
their graduates go on to further education.

One bit of history
many current residents are unaware of is that Alumni Field became the school's
sports site long before the high school moved to the south side of town. In
1928, while MaynardHigh School was still at
the Summer Street location, the town transferred the land that had been the
Town Poor Farm meadow to the School department. The football team started using
the new playing field for the 1928 season. Within a handful of years Alumni
Field gained a cinder track around the playing field, bleachers, hockey rink,
field house and tennis courts.

As for a list of
all the high schools:

Nason Street 1871-1877

Acton
Street
1877-1892

Nason Street 1892-1916

Summer
Street 1916-1964

MHS 1964-2013

MHS 2013-

At the time of the
incorporation of Maynard in 1871, the new town was served by ten teachers
working in four small school buildings. Salaries were in the range of
$9-15/week. The small school building at Nason Street became the first high
school, with a total enrollment of 35 students. Six years later a new high school
was built on Acton Street
(site currently occupied by Jarmo's Auto Repair). Then back to the Nason Street site,
and then Summer Street before decamping to the south side of town.

The third high
school served from 1892-1916. This was a newly built wooden, 12-room
schoolhouse at the current site of the Maynard Public Library. The school
suffered a minor fire on September 12, 1916, then burned completely on
September 20th. Both fires were thought to be arson.

Maynard's new high school (1916). Click on photos to enlarge.

The fourth high
school started out as part of the building currently occupied by ArtSpace.
Construction was completed in time for the start of the 1916-17 school year.
The school was nameless until 1932, when "MaynardHigh School"
was approved at a Town Meeting vote. A timeline compiled by Ralph Sheridan and
David Griffin for the Maynard Historical Society noted, among these many facts,
that football was reestablished as a school team for the fall of 1917, after a
12 year hiatus. The team lost the first game by 59-0.